The present invention relates to improvements in apparatus for assembling groups of cigarettes or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for accumulating arrays of identical elongated rod-shaped articles which constitute or form part of smokers' products. Such products include plain or filter tipped cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars or cheroots.
Groups of plain or filter tipped cigarettes or analogous rod-shaped smokers' products (hereinafter called cigarettes or filter cigarettes for short) must be assembled in packing machines wherein arrays of four, five, ten, twenty or twenty-one cigarettes must be introduced into successive packets which are thereupon closed and sealed to form soft or hinged-lid cigarette packs. In many instances, an array consists of three parallel layers of cigarettes including two outer layers of seven cigarettes each and an intermediate layer consisting of six cigarettes which are staggered with respect to the cigarettes of the outer layers. Such arrays are known as quincunx formations.
It is already known to assemble arrays or groups of cigarettes which consist of several superimposed layers by resorting to an apparatus having a supply magazine with several openings disposed at different levels so that each of the openings (which is normally an elongated slot) is in register with a discrete layer of cigarettes. The magazine is adjacent to an intermittently driven conveyor with a plurality of pocket-shaped receptacles which are moved seriatim into register with successive openings of the magazine. Such conventional apparatus further comprises pushers which are actuated to penetrate through the openings and to expel the respective layers of cigarettes into the adjacent receptacles during the intervals between successive forward movements of the conveyor. An advantage of the just-described conventional apparatus is that the formation of arrays each consisting of two or more overlapping or superimposed layers of cigarettes takes up less time than the assembly of arrays in certain previously utilized apparatus wherein a complete array is assembled in the magazine prior to expulsion into an adjacent receptacle or directly into a hollow mandrel on an indexible turret of a cigarette packing machine. This is due to the fact that gravitational descent of several layers of cigarettes to a position in which the cigarettes form a complete multi-layer group takes up a relatively long interval of time, especially when compared with the interval which is required for the assembly of discrete layers of cigarettes. Thus, gravitational descent of three discrete layers of cigarettes into register with three discrete openings of the magazine takes up a small fraction of that interval which is required to accumulate a complete group consisting of three superimposed layers of cigarettes such as are customary in 20-cigarette packs. However, the just-described apparatus which assemble discrete layers of cigarettes also exhibit certain drawbacks, especially as concerns the quality of cigarettes in the arrays. This is due to the fact that the cigarettes are subjected to pronounced accelerating and decelerating forces during transfer into the receptacles as well as during transport to move the receptacles into register with successive openings of the magazine. Rapid intermittent movements of the conveyor (at right angles to the axes of the cigarettes in the receptacles) are desirable and necessary in a modern packing machine which must process the output of at least one high-speed cigarette maker or filter tipping machine. Such output is in the range of at least 100 cigarettes per second. Rapid acceleration and deceleration of cigarettes which are being delivered into or which are advanced with the receptacles of the conveyor results in the development of substantial stresses which are likely to entail deformation of the wrappers and/or escape of tobacco at one or both ends, depending upon whether the articles to be processed are plain or filter cigarettes.
An additional drawback of the just-described conventional apparatus is that the cigarettes of discrete layers are likely to change their orientation due to the fact that the conveyor is caused to perform intermittent movements at a very high speed. The likelihood of misorientation of cigarettes is especially pronounced during those stages of transport of cigarettes past the magazine when the corresponding receptacles contain a single layer or less than a full complement of cigarettes. For example, the cigarettes are likely to lie askew in receptacles which are designed for accumulation of arrays containing three superimposed layers of cigarettes during that interval which elapses while a receptacle contains a single layer or two layers of cigarettes. Absence of proper orientation of cigarettes invariably results in deformation or destruction of some or all of the cigarettes in a group, and such groups are detected by customary monitoring means of a packing machine and segregated from satisfactory groups so as to ensure that each and every pack which reaches the customer contains a predetermined number of satisfactory rod-shaped smokers' products.